‘Bus Roadeo’ set July 12

The Minnesota Public Transit Association’s (MPTA) 32nd Annual Minnesota State Bus Roadeo is Friday, July 12 through Saturday, July 13 in Marshall. It’s hosted by Community Transit of United Community Action Partnership.

This year’s course is at Southwest Minnesota State University, located at 1501 State Street in Marshall. This Minnesota public transit tradition provides safety training to bus operators in a friendly competition setting.

Operators are asked to perform challenging driving tasks around a course.

Judges are setup throughout the course to score operators based on how well they accomplish each task and how long it took the operator to get through the entire course.

Operators must also complete wheelchair securement testing and attend a training program over the lunch hour on Saturday.

This year’s event also features bus simulator demonstrations. After all operators have competed and finished training, the scores are tallied and winners are announced during the banquet dinner Saturday evening, which will take place at the Ramada by Wyndham, located at 1500 E. College Drive in Marshall.

The event is free and open to the public.

The opening ceremony begins at 8 a.m. on Saturday, July 13 at Southwest Minnesota State University, followed by the Large Bus Division Competition at 8:45 a.m. and the Small Bus Competition at 10:30 a.m.

There are 12 operators competing in the Large Bus Division and 24 operators competing in the Small Bus Division.

There are operators from across the state competing in both divisions.

This event recognizes the men and women who are proud to call themselves bus operators.

For more information and to view the schedule of events, please visit the MPTA website at: www.mpta-transit.org/events.